Close Call backing into spot

[PanJH]

Originally Posted by twinboat

When I'm backing I don't pay attention to unsolicited help.

Even with the DW out there, I often check for myself.

Same with me---

[A Traveler]

Originally Posted by twinboat

When I'm backing I don't pay attention to unsolicited help.

Add me to this group, twinboat. I agree 100%.

If you cannot back up unassisted, you need to do something to improve your driving proficiency and situational awareness.

[Bigd9]

My feeling is, if you have someone you can trust to assist in backing up a coach, and you don't use them to spot for you, that is irresponsible. Campgrounds can be filled with children riding bikes zooming this way and that way, dogs running loose, old people like me walking slow, and having another set of eyes to guide me is the right thing to do. I am not one to say "I can do this all by myself" and puff my chest out if my spouse is going to help. Together we have figured out how to get our coach into a very difficult spot and back out like we did at Frozen Head State Park.

Sharon and my 13 year old granddaughter are both well adapt at guiding me back without shouting out loud. They look up, they look down, and they look side to side. They will use a two way radio and talk calmly and quietly. I tell them act like it is midnight and everyone around us are asleep. My wife will use arm signals to supplement her radio chatter since she has never mastered the concept of right and left! My granddaughter knows how to use the pole I made to spot the point where the tires need to be so as to miss a tree when the rooms slide out if the need exist. They also know if they disappear from my mirrors and/or backup monitor, I will stop and not move until they reappear.

So I don't need more experience so I can do it all by myself, or school to learn how to do it all myself, I will use my help to add another set of eyes on the situation, thankyou very much.

[TRebel]

Originally Posted by Bigd9

My feeling is, if you have someone you can trust to assist in backing up a coach, and you don't use them to spot for you, that is irresponsible. Campgrounds can be filled with children riding bikes zooming this way and that way, dogs running loose, old people like me walking slow, and having another set of eyes to guide me is the right thing to do. I am not one to say "I can do this all by myself" and puff my chest out if my spouse is going to help. Together we have figured out how to get our coach into a very difficult spot and back out like we did at Frozen Head State Park.

Sharon and my 13 year old granddaughter are both well adapt at guiding me back without shouting out loud. They look up, they look down, and they look side to side. They will use a two way radio and talk calmly and quietly. I tell them act like it is midnight and everyone around us are asleep. My wife will use arm signals to supplement her radio chatter since she has never mastered the concept of right and left! My granddaughter knows how to use the pole I made to spot the point where the tires need to be so as to miss a tree when the rooms slide out if the need exist. They also know if they disappear from my mirrors and/or backup monitor, I will stop and not move until they reappear.

So I don't need more experience so I can do it all by myself, or school to learn how to do it all myself, I will use my help to add another set of eyes on the situation, thankyou very much.

Very Well Said. Thank you.

[marknpeg]

My wife and I have backing down to a science, she knows the turn radius really well and gives consistent hand signals that I understand. Typically we place it in one try, only rarely have to adjust.

That said...a couple weeks ago we were relocating from one spot to another in a campground. This place was actually separate fenced-in areas and we were moving from one to another, going against the "normal" direction - no other choice. This meant I had to take up the entire 2-lane road to swing wide enough to make the sharper-than-90-degree right turn into the gate of the new area. My wife was on the ground in front, watching everything. I'm watching mirrors and moving slowly when I hear STOPPPP!!!!! Like I've never heard before. I stopped, hard. Apparently there was a dirt berm just outside the gate and the Oasis exhaust pipe was about to trench it. Stopped just in time so there was just a couple tablespoons of dirt in the pipe, could have been a lot worse. So I backed up, blocked the road again, took a different line and got in just fine.

[jacwjames]

I'm surprised this post got this much attention, who'da thought??

I'm usually pretty proficient at backing.

Back several years ago I was at a dog show with my wife. One of her friends visiting from Michigan came into the building and said the parking lot was crammed and her dad couldn't get there Class C into a spot they had reserved. She asked if I could go out and help. I ended up backing the rig through a maze of car's, RV's etc keeping as close as possible on the drivers side knowing I could judge the distances better doing that. Backed the rig all the way back into the spot they were parked the day before >> my wife's friends dad was impressed.

One our trip to Alaska we were trying to find a parking spot for our Class A in Anchorage, found a parking lot with and open spot but had to parallel park the rig. Did it the first try. I didn't notice but a guy in a big truck was watching me the whole time and when I got done he yelled that he was impressed.

I think the lesson here is that even if you are confident in your ability, if your gut tells you to stop listen to what it is saying. Taking 5 seconds to put the rig in park and walking around to the back saved me a big heart ache.

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by Bigd9

My feeling is, if you have someone you can trust to assist in backing up a coach, and you don't use them to spot for you, that is irresponsible. Campgrounds can be filled with children riding bikes zooming this way and that way, dogs running loose, old people like me walking slow, and having another set of eyes to guide me is the right thing to do. I am not one to say "I can do this all by myself" and puff my chest out if my spouse is going to help. Together we have figured out how to get our coach into a very difficult spot and back out like we did at Frozen Head State Park.

Sharon and my 13 year old granddaughter are both well adapt at guiding me back without shouting out loud. They look up, they look down, and they look side to side. They will use a two way radio and talk calmly and quietly. I tell them act like it is midnight and everyone around us are asleep. My wife will use arm signals to supplement her radio chatter since she has never mastered the concept of right and left! My granddaughter knows how to use the pole I made to spot the point where the tires need to be so as to miss a tree when the rooms slide out if the need exist. They also know if they disappear from my mirrors and/or backup monitor, I will stop and not move until they reappear.

So I don't need more experience so I can do it all by myself, or school to learn how to do it all myself, I will use my help to add another set of eyes on the situation, thankyou very much.

I wasn't puffing my chest out !!

I said un-solicited help.

The DW and I get out, review the sitituation, discuss the plan and implement it.

If beer can Joe stumbles over, I ignore him, follow my DWs directions and thank Joe.

[fpresto]

When we had a 5th wheel we tried with her directing and me driving. It just didn't work. She can't judge distance or anticipate things like tail swing and most important she would continuously forget my number one rule that if I could not see her in the mirror I would stop until I could. Our parking seemed to be nothing but a series of stops and starts. We decided to switch to her driving and me directing. It worked out perfectly. She is excellent at taking direction and I am a good judge of distance. We almost always got it perfect the first time. We have continued this approach with the Class A and it works just as well.

[ladagobago]

Recently I visited my family in Clemson SC for the eclipse. Not wanting to stay at a Wally lot my cousin cut back some branches from his upper drive so I could park there. At first the plan was to dump our box trailer somewhere down the road but in the end I googled the the road and approach and figured I could do a right turn at the last T intersection on the hill and then backup th 600+ feet to his drive entrance. Once there I should be able to back the trailer and MH into the drive if he walked behind the trailer and I would follow him in the camera rear view of the trailer.

It work pretty well and I was able to maneuver the entrance and back through the serpentine drive between the trees. see some of the pics below.
top pics in the drive. you can see the trailer on the right pic in the back. bottom pic shows the road from the T where we started to back up 600 ft and the next is the unpaved drive entry of the three to the very right. only had to stop three times for adjustment entering the drive. WE had a 30 amp hookup and water. plan to do this every time now.